BYU Athletes Create Online Community for Struggling Athletes Across the Nation
Senior tennis player and captain, David Ball, and junior soccer player, Natalie Clark, launched Untold Athletes – a platform dedicated to sharing the inspiring stories of athletes everywhere, especially those affected by COVID-19. COVID-19 has had an unprecedented effect on sports throughout the world, including high school sports and the NCAA.
On March 12, 2020, the NCAA announced the following: “Today, NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors canceled the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships. This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities” (NCAA.com).
Following the announcement from the NCAA, Ball and Clark created Untold Athletes and reported to Sports Illustrated the reason behind the new community, “We started Untold Athletes because we realized there were so many amazing athletes with inspiring stories who had sacrificed so much to get to the level they were at. It was tragic to us that many of them wouldn’t get the recognition and closure they deserved so we created the platform to change that.”
This new community is a place where “athletes can support other athletes and be uplifted while doing so,” Ball said. Though the community was created by BYU athletes, athletes from across the world have used this site to voice their stories.
Featured highlights include Jake Toolson – BYU men’s basketball star and recipient of the West Coast Conference Newcomer of the Year Award, Maddy Price – Professional Track & Field athlete on Team Canada, Max Hazzard – scored more than 1,000 career points during his basketball career between UC Irvine and the University of Arizona, and Devin Dawson – Special Olympics Athlete.
Untold Athletes continues to share inspiring stories everyday. In just two weeks the Untold Athletes Instagram page went from zero followers to 1,200 followers, connecting misfortunate athletes across the country.
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